By Lauren Fenthum
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CLICK HEREEveryone knows that if you want to be on top of your game in marketing you need to use data. In this day an age, everything is data-driven and is being used by big brands as well as organizations to spot the latest trends. For most, Google Analytics is standard practice to have set up for your company’s sites, but how often do you check it? You know the numbers of how many people opened our last email but what does this really mean for your business?
The ability to collect and analyze large amounts of data has transformed society and how we know it today, but the problem is, marketers really just don’t have those large amounts of data available. For the average marketer, their data collections are small, unpredictable and for the most, imperfect. The solution to this problem is implementing intuition. So at this point, you might be thinking what does intuition have to do with data that is logic, scientific and reasonable? For the most, it gives you a clearer and more concise understanding of who your clients are and what they really want. There is a difference by setting a goal and monitoring it and trying to meet expectations.
In order to build intuitions try predicting the future. Create a hypothesis for what you expect the results to be and after you have collected the data, analyze it and then either rebut or confirm the initial hypothesis. As a scientist or marketer, we are all using data for different reasons. As a scientist, you collect the data for a specific purpose, and if it does not match up to your expectations you are not allowed to reanalyze the same data set. As marketers, there is only one dataset available, which is being analyzed over and over again. This is where marketers can take a cue from their academic cousins.
If you are continuously creating content, you have more opportunities to conduct your own experiments. Before you go ahead with creating content for data collection purposes take a moment to think about what you expect to see in your results. What is the goal and purpose of the content? Are you hoping for better lead generation or a higher click-through rate? Create your hypothesis and be specific about your aims and goals and write own an actual number for your predictions. Take the time to analyze your data; did you get what you expected? If not, take the time to understand why you didn’t get the results you were hoping for, what needs to be changed and look into doing more research to ensure that next time you get the results you desired. Using and understanding data is not and shouldn’t be a costly exercise for your company if anything it should be a direct portal for profit generation as you are taking the steps needed to meet goals and to better understand what your target audience responds to and why. Take time when analyzing data and use it to your advantage and take your company further.
